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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 116 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  4. We're almost out of ________________.
  5. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  6. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. That was ________________ to happen.
  10. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. You don't need to ________________ round.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. clip — for paper
  3. wake — to stop sleeping
  4. pop — soda
  5. wake — a trail
  6. shower — a meteor shower
  7. cold — an illness
  8. clip — to cut
  9. bound — certain
  10. content — happy
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. shower — to wash
  13. bound — obliged
  14. tear — from crying
  15. tear — from crying
  16. wake — before a funeral
  17. shower — rain
  18. content — the amount
  19. bound — tied together
  20. cold — not warm
  21. tear — to rip
  22. pop — to visit
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. pop — music

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com